soccer fanatics

so the morning after that fabulous beach party wasn’t pretty although it was a beautiful summer sunday. we laid on the beach until our hangovers demanded we eat. we headed to gusto [a dennys-like restaurant] for brunch. afterwards i went to a friend’s house to shower and then walked to the station and caught a train to niigata city. the ride gave me some much needed time to nap. i went solo but was planning on meeting my friend james at the station; he’d been kind enough to invite me to a soccer game with his friends. at the station i literally ran to meet him and we ran to the shuttle bus and headed for the big swan, home to the niigata albirex team. these people take their soccer seriously. i ransacked my closet and hit the thrift store in search of something orange, the team's color. this is the best i could do. with the docomo cell phone company mascot…yes, their mascot is a mushroom. no, i have no idea why.

at the stadium we met up with hirata sensei who had arrived at noon [for a 6 pm game]to get a place in line for the home team cheering section. you see, when you get there you draw a straw. that color is the line you get in. then closer to game time they draw colors and that’s the order in which the lines will enter the stadium. from there it’s a mad dash to find seats before the next color gets let in 5 minutes later. our line was the last to enter and as soon as they tore our tickets, hirata sensei took off running. he rounded us up after he’d staked claim on 8 neighboring seats. good work. we then waited almost 3 more hours for the game to start, during which time their other friends arrived. the stadium is humongous.

the crowd that day was 44,000 and something. and the ones who sit in the home section are nuts! we didn’t sit down the whole game and we didn’t stop yelling. there are tons of chants and cheers for every player and every game situation. the insane crowd is lead by a group of drum-beating fanatics who sit front and center in the section. i managed to pick up enough of the cheers to scream until i nearly lost my voice.

it turns out the invitations to the game were somewhat strategic and resulted in an even number of men and women. this seating arrangement was also no accident.

too bad james is taking the picture. he so graciously passed off a few of his shots to me. i knew there would be some young, single japanese men there but it wasn’t until later, when talking with james, that i realized it was a gokon. i’ve heard this term before when i was asking about the group dating phenomenon in japan. it refers to a prearranged party usually aimed at making couples out of some of the participants. they are usually held at izakayas, rowdy japanese restaurants, which is where we headed after the game. some people headed home as we moved on to the nijikai, or second party, at another restaurant. i was beat from the night before so james and i straggled home about 1. oh yeah, almost forgot, albirex won the game 3-0.